Dragon Quest X Tanks On Wii U

[The Wooster]

Dragon Quest X Tanks On Wii U

33 thousand units in a week is a poor showing for a Dragon Quest title.

Things aren't looking good for Square Enix. Sales of its recent western releases have been "disappointing" (though to be clear, those "disappointing" sales number in the millions), its previous CEO bailed in spectacular fashion and the company is currently going through a period of belt tightening that has already cost people their jobs. But at least Squeenix can always depend on the steady sales of Dragon Quest to keep the money flowing, right? Wrong.

A couple of months back, Square Enix admitted it was "disappointed" in the sales and subscription retention of cutesy Wii MMO, Dragon Quest X. It'll likely be doubly disappointed with sales of the recently released Wii U version, which has managed only 33 thousand copies sold in its first week on sale in Japan; awful numbers for a Dragon Quest release.

To put that number into perspective. Luigi's Mansion for 3DS enjoyed some 110 thousand sales, Animal Crossing: New Leaf clocked up 58 thousand and ludicrously beautiful/niche port, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, managed 45k, on the Vita.

The Wii U/Dragon Quest bundle doubled the console's Japanese sales week over week, putting units sold at 22,942 for the week. For comparison, 31 thousand Vitas and 67 thousand 3DS' were sold in the same week.

Source: 4Gamer Via NeoGaf [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=534063]



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[Lvl 64 Klutz]

The WiiU is going to prove to be a spectacular failure until they manage what Spring 2013 is doing for the 3DS: Releasing a ton of software that people want.

 

[FoolKiller]

Dear Square Enix,

Dragon Quest X would have made money if you actually made Dragon Quest X. But you didn't. You made FF XIV with Dragon Quest monsters. Stop being stupid. Dragon Quest fans want good, old-fashioned RPGs. MMOs do not fall into that category.

Sincerely,

Ever Dragon Quest/Warrior fan in the last 25 years.

 

[Innegativeion]

Dragon Quest 10 is a MMO? Why? Did they forget the core of what people want from the Dragon Quest/Warrior series? An actual good RPG with an ever improving adventure with possibly new mechanics.

Y'know, for all their faults I genuinely like Square Enix. They've made some great games. I honestly would like to see them succeed (and pull out some better JRPGs that aren't Final Fantasy XIII, but I digress)

I saw this thread and seriously considered purchasing this Dragon Quest sequel I'd never heard of, since I've yet to play a DQ game (weird, I know) and now's a good a time as any...

...but then I see it's an MMO. An MMO isn't quite the same thing as good single player RPG. While I can enjoy both, I'm quite MMO'd out at the moment, and I'd imagine much of their fanbase is.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I was very surprised that Dragon Quest sold poorly, until I saw the words MMO...

Dear game developers,

Please stop trying to achieve WoW levels of subscribers. Blizzard have had a FUCKING DECADE to get to that level. No matter how good you think/know your game to be, YOU WILL NEVER BEAT WOW IN A YEAR.

Please stop trying. I miss high quality RPGs, as do most of the fans that actually want a decent RPG.

 

[thiosk]

This was a thing?

Also? MMO?

No thanks.

 

[Something Amyss]

Dragon Quest 10 is a MMO? Why? Did they forget the core of what people want from the Dragon Quest/Warrior series? An actual good RPG with an ever improving adventure with possibly new mechanics.

Because MMOs are cool.

<..>

Sorry, looking for River Song. She usually shoots things at this point.

This is the follower mentality the industry has had for over 30 years. It's just been cranked to 11. Nowadays, everything has to be a shooter, an MMO, or an MMO/shooter hybrid.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

There are so many games on the 3DS I want this year it's crazy, while the WII U aside from maybe Zelda doesn't interest me at all..

 

[Something Amyss]

So no one (except apparently the author of this article) expected the game to suddenly start selling like hotcakes a year later on the Wii U.

Squeeeenix was still promoting it as one of their big sellers in investor relations materials as recently as this year. It seems like the people who reported the prior disappointment, the ones who this article was talking about, expected the DQ brand to still be a mover and a shaker.

Maybe it's best to look at this article in context, rather than place blame on the author.

 

[uchytjes]

Okay, they went wrong in not one, but SEVERAL places with this one.

1. Its a port of a game that already didn't do too amazingly.

2. It is a F!@#ING MMO OF A GAME THAT SHOULDN'T BE AN MMO.

3. It wasn't a new, single player Dragon Quest.

4. It wasn't developed by Level 5. I haven't played any dragon quests besides No. 8, but I do remember that 8 & 9 were developed by Level 5, one of the better JRPG developers at this time. Also, it was developed by Squeenix, and they haven't done too well on the development side recently.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

It's kind of a confirmation that they just don't know what their audience wants, do they? Like making a survey or just heading out to the streets is way too hard to them.

 

[Abomination]

I loved Dragon Quest on my Playstation 2, but the very idea of it being turned into an MMO is just stupid. A game that never even had multiplayer split screen. Might as well make a Metal Gear MMO or a Zelda MMO.

It's sad that the gaming industry is so disconnected from its consumer base.

 

[Scribblesense]

33k is abysmal, but it doesn't take into account the facts that it was released on the 30th (and was only tracked on the charts for 2 days), and the digital release was 50% off if you already owned the Wii version (and it didn't track digital sales).

That doesn't mean it secretly sold a gajillion copies, but the numbers could easily be double what they listed. For an install base of less than a million that's performing fairly.

It should also be mentioned that the Wii U managed to sell more than the PS3 in Japan that week. That's pretty significant and we'll probably see the Wii U sell 60k or more units worldwide this week.

If anyone should be disappointed in a game's performance, it should be Nintendo with Game and Wario which only sold 22k in Japan. Yikes. Still no western release date? C'mon, Nintendo, get your act together.

 

[Alluos]

So not only is it an MMO instalment in a mostly single-player franchise (ala FF14) but it's also a re-release of an MMO that didn't do very well to begin with?

Who the hell Green-lit this?

 

[Evil Smurf]

how hard is it it do customer research?

Dear consumers on our mailing list, would you like Dragon Quest X to be a mmo?

y/n

Silly Square Enix

 

[EHKOS]

This reminds me I still have to finish 8, which is amazing so far. And Japan already has New Leaf?! I'm going to have to go and pout.

 

[Nick Holmgren]

Square, stop making MMOs.

FFIX was somehow good from what I have heard, but FFIV was a train wreck beyond recovery and this is just a sign you guys should not try it anymore.

 

[AuronFtw]

This is the same square enix that hasn't made a good FF game since 10 though, if any dev can kill a franchise it's that one. I mean, EA could acquire them and give them a run for their money, but squeenix is cranking out shitty sequels without EA's influence at all.

I think the most notable thing squeenix has done is... cutscenes in deus ex? Their own releases have been fairly ass. Very pretty, polished pieces of ass with stunning visuals showing each ass hair, but lacking the depth and quality of older titles that made the older games stand out as obviously not ass.